Close file without quitting VIM application?

This deletes the buffer (which translates to close the file)

:bd 

As already mentioned, you're looking for :bd, however this doesn't completely remove the buffer, it's still accessible:

:e foo
:e bar
:buffers
  1 #h   "foo"                          line 1
  2 %a   "bar"                          line 1
Press ENTER or type command to continue
:bd 2
:buffers
  1 %a   "foo"                          line 1
Press ENTER or type command to continue
:b 2
2   bar

You may instead want :bw which completely removes it.

:bw 2
:b 2 
E86: Buffer 2 does not exist

Not knowing about :bw bugged me for quite a while.

If you have multiple split windows in your Vim window then :bd closes the split window of the current file, so I like to use something a little more advanced:

map fc <Esc>:call CleanClose(1)

map fq <Esc>:call CleanClose(0)


function! CleanClose(tosave)
if (a:tosave == 1)
    w!
endif
let todelbufNr = bufnr("%")
let newbufNr = bufnr("#")
if ((newbufNr != -1) && (newbufNr != todelbufNr) && buflisted(newbufNr))
    exe "b".newbufNr
else
    bnext
endif

if (bufnr("%") == todelbufNr)
    new
endif
exe "bd".todelbufNr
endfunction

:[N]bd[elete][!]                        *:bd* *:bdel* *:bdelete* *E516*
:bd[elete][!] [N]
                Unload buffer [N] (default: current buffer) and delete it from
                the buffer list.  If the buffer was changed, this fails,
                unless when [!] is specified, in which case changes are lost.
                The file remains unaffected.  Any windows for this buffer are
                closed.  If buffer [N] is the current buffer, another buffer
                will be displayed instead.  This is the most recent entry in
                the jump list that points into a loaded buffer.
                Actually, the buffer isn't completely deleted, it is removed
                from the buffer list |unlisted-buffer| and option values,
                variables and mappings/abbreviations for the buffer are
                cleared.

If you've saved the last file already, then :enew is your friend (:enew! if you don't want to save the last file). Note that the original file will still be in your buffer list (the one accessible via :ls).

If you modify a file and want to close it without quitting Vim and without saving, you should type :bd!.

:bd can be mapped. I map it to F4, Shift-F4 if I need to force-close because of some change I no longer want.

The bufkill.vim plugin adds BD etc., to delete the buffer without closing any splits (as bd) would alone.

Insert the following in your .vimrc file and, with pressing F4, it will close the current file.

:map <F4> :bd<CR>

Look at the Butane plugin to keep the window layout when closing a buffer.

For me close-buffers is pretty useful plugin:

:Bdelete this to close that you can remap.

I have the same issue so I made the plugin. This plugin replace :q and other commands and then prevent the window closed.

if you still have issue, please try to use following plugin. https://github.com/taka-vagyok/prevent-win-closed.vim